Ok, so maybe you don’t have a goddess or sultan name and you use your REAL name. Either way, tell us about your name!

I thank Tamian, one of our members, for this wonderful idea!

My name was formed from the sylables of 3 of my grandaughters and some wise advise from Adeela

Thanks for posting my curiosity Medina! At the time, I told you I probably wouldn't answer because my answer is so boring. It's my name, Tamian. ::yawn:: But I did think of a funny story to tell after all.

A while back I overheard one of the girls in my class telling the story of this dancer that she knew and how she had taken the first sylables of her first, middle, and last names to come up with this fantastic dance name (can't remember what the name was, but as I remember it was lovely) I pondered this story for a while, and started to giggle.....

That would make me Ta-El-Woo. It sounds best if you put the extra o on the end. We had a good giggle over that and she still calles me that to this day.

Kindly,
Tamian

My name was given to me by a family friend from Nigeria when I was born. Olu is short for Olu Remi which means gift from God in Yoruba dialect. Very cute when you're a baby, not so cute when you're a grown woman! LOL~ So when the time came, I decided to shorten it. I like Olu because it's short and simple. My birth name is Nicole.

I have tried to come up with some, but what happens is that I'm concerned that if someone calls me by my Goddess name I will not answer, I'm so used to my birth name! There are so many middle eastern names that sound so beautiful!
"Jhal-E-RA" is a phonetic term that I came up, that could mean my name in arabic. You know ...by asking some people, how do you say this & that.

What a great question. My legal name is Francy Vega, ZiZi was a nickname given to me by my first dance teacher. Zabaneh was my grandfathers last name, he was Lebanese.

A name that I have always been fond of is Morocco. It stirs up visions of exotic travel.

With that in mind I wanted a goddess name associated with a location. Little did I know, my name was under my nose the whole time, or should I say my house was! In other words I live on Medina Avenue!

[{Medina 1: the ancient quarter of many cities in northern Africa}]

Hummmmmm! “Medina,” it stuck! I did a Google search to see if there were any other Medina’s out there and there were not! So Medina it was.

About a year later, I discovered that the Tampa Bellydance MeetUps’ Organizer had a name similar to mine, “Madrina”.

Maybe she lives on Madrina Street?!!!

Ok, The short version...mostly because my name evolved over a 15 year period.

When I joined the Renaissance Historical society, I needed a Norman/Anglo Saxon character name. My mom gave name a book years earlier called "Red Adam's Lady" a romanticized historical novel set around the crusades. One of the character's names was Adela and they called her Adela Daggerhand because she kept a dagger in her sleave for "self-defense".

I modeled my character after her, and it fit pretty well, until we relocated to "Venice" and I had to play a Venetian lady-turned-wench. My name changed to Adeliza Stilletimano.

When I started to dance at festivals, I hated having to change costumes all day, so I threw away the tight bodices, switched to a Turkish vest and became Adeela al-Hamsa Kindjal, born to a Venetian lady and a Turkish merchant of high repute.

When we perform on stage out side of faire, I am just Adeela.

Meaning: In most laguages it means noble, just, equal, balanced or even minded (definitely not even tempered!).

Goddess name...well, O.K. What I chose to be called when I dance, I refer to it as my "stage" name.

My first teacher had a book of Arabic words along with their meanings. I looked thru it wanting a name that noone else had. I, also, was very interested in what the word meant. I picked the name, Lamis. It means, soft to touch. I liked that! When I saw what the word, Lamis, meant, the thought that came to my mind besides the obvious was...when I perform, I hope to "touch" the audience, too!!!

It is I the Genie!

So you want to know how I became a Genie? Well when I was younger I had really long hair, I was a metal head. Well as time passed I started to notice that the hair on top of my head was getting thinner and thinner while the rest of my head was growing long and strong. It got to the point that I would look like a Klingon from Star Trek if I didn’t do anything and Klingons don’t get chicks. So I took the advice from my father, “ you don’t prune a dead tree, you cut it down.” So I shaved my head, short at first then bald. At which time I grew a moustache and then a goatee to balance my face. So here I am bald with a goatee and two big earrings. When I was a teacher the students would get a kick if I made a pensive face and stroke my goatee and say “In-n-n-teresting!”. My one friend would call me Lenin, which upset me because I didn’t want to be associated with the father of the Russian revolution. That same friend helped me to get a job inter view with the film company I work for now. He described my skills be to my boss JR and the way I look and said “he’s like the genie In the bottle”. So when I finally meet JR he say to me “your right he’s just like a genie. Are you going to be my genie? If I rub your lamp will you grant me wishes?” Which started a whole line of rubbing some thing for wishes one lines, which I will not repeat. So then JR started to call me Genie at work because everyone in the film industry has a nickname. The name stuck when I would appear out of thin air when their was some crises on the camera floor solve problems, some times in unconventional ways and then go back about my business. It got to the point that I wouldn’t respond to my real name Bill. Phone calls for me were announced for Genie. It wasn’t till about six months at where I work that I decided that I would try to dance. So what better dance name than Genie, it suite my personality. Fun loving, mischievous and mysterious isn’t that what people think Genies are.
Then my wife Chris did some research about the Jinn and their place in Middlestern culture. She found the name Ashmedai, who was the King of the Jinn and served King Solomon in the Koran. I figured it a cool name to use as a second personality. I have this idea of a character and style of dance that is very masculine which uses a lot of marshal arts moves and forms incorporated in the dance. I am a big fan of Frank Hurbert who wrote the Dune series. So I wanted to create folkloric dances based off this world and it culture, which was based off of current Middlestern culture. Were Genie is a fun loving cabaret style dancer I wanted Ashmedai to be more brooding serious character that would do folkloric/ tribal style dances.
To date I have been studying Kung-fu with Jr and Tie-Chi with my acupuncturist Dr. Rogg. I had a private class with Yousry to go over Tahtib, Egyptian stick fighting/ dance. All to develop this character.
Genie is the fun guy, Ashmedai you take with you when you go into a dark ally.
I know this is a long explanation for the sources of my name but a name sets the tone for what my personality is. What is in a name?

Villa- Kiafa!!!